Pack sizes & how to order
Pack size is where quotations get compared wrongly. The conventions below are not published anywhere as a standard — they are simply how the Indian laboratory chemical trade works, and knowing them stops you comparing a bottle price against a carton price.
The single most common quotation error
Concentrated mineral acids are sold in multi-bottle outer cartons, not as single bottles. The standard configurations are 2 × 500 ml and 4 × 2.5 L.
If one supplier quotes “2.5 L” and another quotes “4 × 2.5 L”, those are not the same line. We saw this often enough that every acid listing on this site states the carton configuration explicitly rather than the nominal volume.
Solids
Salts, reagents, indicators and stains. 500 g is the workhorse SKU across most of the trade.
| Retail sizes | 100 g · 500 g |
|---|---|
| Bulk | 5 kg · 25 kg · 50 kg |
| Dyes, stains, biochemicals | 5 g · 25 g · 100 g |
| High-value research chemicals | 100 mg · 1 g |
| 25 kg and above | Price on request |
Liquids & solutions
Reagent solutions, volumetric solutions and indicator solutions follow a near-universal three-step ladder.
| Standard ladder | 500 ml → 1 L → 2.5 L |
|---|---|
| Volumetric concentrate ampoules | 3 amp · 6 amp |
| Ampoule yield | 1 ampoule makes 1 litre |
Solvents
Note that bulk solvent is sometimes quoted by weight rather than volume — a 180 kg drum and a 200 L drum are different quantities of the same product.
| Standard ladder | 500 ml → 2.5 L → 25 L → 200 L drum |
|---|---|
| Common variants | 1 L step · 5 L step |
| Bulk by weight | 180 kg drum |
| 25 L and above | Price on request |
Concentrated acids
The exception. Always confirm the carton configuration before comparing prices, and before raising a purchase order against a nominal volume.
| Small carton | 2 × 500 ml |
|---|---|
| Standard carton | 4 × 2.5 L |
| Intermediate | 2 × 5 L |
| Bulk | 25 L or 35 kg carboy · price on request |
| Hydrofluoric acid | 500 ml PTFE bottle only |
What to put on the purchase order
A line that reads “Sodium hydroxide — 5 kg” will be quoted, supplied and invoiced, and there is roughly a one in three chance it is the wrong material. A line that reads “Sodium hydroxide pellets, AR grade, ≥ 98%, 5 kg” cannot be got wrong.
Specify, in this order:
- Full product name, including the hydration state — “magnesium sulphate heptahydrate”, not “magnesium sulphate”
- CAS number where you know it. It removes every ambiguity about which substance you mean
- Grade — AR, Extra Pure, HPLC, IP. Not “best quality”
- Assay or purity if your method specifies one
- Pack size and configuration — and for acids, the carton
- Quantity of packs, not total mass. “10 kg” could be two 5 kg packs or twenty 500 g packs, priced very differently
On bulk: 25 kg, 50 kg and drum quantities are priced on request throughout this trade because freight and packing dominate the cost and both depend on your delivery location. Send us an annual consumption figure and we will quote a supply schedule rather than a series of one-off lines — it is almost always cheaper.
